What Makes One Idea Better Than Another?
#5250·Benjamin DaviesOP, about 2 months agoThe more HTV an explanation is, the more closely it corresponds to reality.
The idea ‘I’m located in a hemisphere’ is ‘easy to vary’ as to which hemisphere but it’s true, meaning it corresponds to reality.
HTV and correspondence are orthogonal.
#5248·Benjamin DaviesOP, about 2 months agoA surviving the criticism does not show that A is progress over B. We could reject one error while moving even further from reality.
Explanation A surviving criticism does not establish that explanation A is objective progress over explanation B. But the claim that one fatal flaw in explanation B is enough to reject explanation B does not depend on explanation A being objective progress. Rejecting explanation B and establishing explanation A as objective progress are separate claims.
The more HTV an explanation is, the more closely it corresponds to reality.
#5246·Benjamin DaviesOP, about 2 months agoWhen we reject explanation B in favour of explanation A, there must be some property of the explanations that comprehensively distinguishes A as better than B.
That property is hard-to-vary-ness.
#5247·Benjamin DaviesOP, about 2 months agoOne fatal flaw in B is enough to reject B. A does not also need to possess some opposite property that makes it the winner.
A surviving the criticism does not show that A is progress over B. We could reject one error while moving even further from reality.
#5246·Benjamin DaviesOP, about 2 months agoWhen we reject explanation B in favour of explanation A, there must be some property of the explanations that comprehensively distinguishes A as better than B.
One fatal flaw in B is enough to reject B. A does not also need to possess some opposite property that makes it the winner.
When we reject explanation B in favour of explanation A, there must be some property of the explanations that comprehensively distinguishes A as better than B.